Slough, The Surprise Freelance Capital...

When you think of the best cities for freelancers to live and work places such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff come to mind.

A recent survey contradicts popular opinion however, and
possibly shows that freelance workers are turning away from the
bright lights of the big city, and instead, moving towards smaller
cities that may not be on the freelance map right now, but soon
will be.

It was a popular jobs site who conducted the survey, as they
wanted to find out more about salaries, freelance jobs on offer,
and local house prices. Everyone was surprised with the
answers.

The reason? Because it was Slough, that place in Berkshire that
was once made famous by David Brent, which came out on top as the
number 1 place to live and work if you are a freelance
contractor.

That's right. You can forget about cities such as Bristol,
Nottingham, Belfast, Leeds or Edinburgh. It is Slough that is the
place to be, right now, for freelance workers.

It appears that freelancers in this particular town have the
best job satisfaction, cheapest cost of living, and just an overall
satisfaction with their quality of life.

So why have we not heard about Slough being the freelance
capital before...surely it would have been all over the news by
now? Perhaps not, because when you think about it, the freelance
workers in Slough probably want to keep it a secret so they don't
start attracting thousands of other self employed professionals to
the town.

The secret is out, so to speak, and Slough is not off the radar
anymore, so expect to be witnessing more freelance workers make the
move to Berkshire in search of opportunity and money.

According to the survey Slough regularly has an average of
26,000 job vacancies in the area, with many of those freelance jobs
of course. Not only that, but the average salary is £35,000 and the
price of a house comes in at £390,000.

Slough is also famous for being home to the Mars factory, where
everyday 2.5 million Mars Bars are produced.

You are only 7 miles away from Heathrow Airport (great for
freelance professionals who need to do business abroad), and the
town has excellent transport links with the M4, M25 and other roads
just around the corner.

What if Slough isn't your cup of tea though, what then? The
survey went on to tell us that Cambridge is another place that
freelancers might want to check out, as well as Swindon and
Stoke.

Other cities that got honourable mentions include Reading,
Milton Keynes, Fife and Oxford, so you really are spoiled for
choice if you want to find a good city for good jobs and the
freelance lifestyle.